


Freedom, Forever

by Umikarakey



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, I don't know, I'll stop tagging now, M/M, alternative universe, and Ryūgazaki Rei, eventual romance maybe?, future fish, maybe Hazuki Nagisa, okay one more, there are so many great ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-18 11:53:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9383762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umikarakey/pseuds/Umikarakey
Summary: Rin and Sousuke find a very beautiful masculine necklace at the beach, and Rin decides to keep it.





	1. Prologue

A boy with bright, teary green eyes frantically ran around the beach, searching for something probably hidden beneath the small balls of sand. A mere few feet away from him was his raven haired friend who was helping him find that precious item. He tried to keep himself composed, though, for the sake of his best friend. They had to find it soon because if they do not find that thing, neither of them could return home…

\---

“Sousuke….I'm bored!!!!” Rin whined, plopping himself on Sousuke's bed, almost landing on the boy himself who was busy trying to read a storybook on his own for the very first time, without his mother's help. The teal eyed boy had no intention whatsoever of allowing that little redheaded brat into his room, if it wasn't for his mother's endless insistence. He regretted giving in now, though. “How long are you going to keep reading that?”

“Until I understand the story. Also, if you're bored, you should go home. Now,” it was more of a demand rather than a suggestion, but Rin was having none of it. He continued complaining as he got up to investigate the room for any interesting things.

“You're no fun,” Rin commented as he peered over a wooden rack stuffed with fantasy books. “You sure like this stuff,” he continued as the redhead pulled out a book about fairies.

“Oh those. My mom gave me those. I like the mermaid ones though. I'd like to see one myself.”

“Idiot, mermaids don't exist. Only little girls believe in them,” Rin was a bit upset because he used to believe in mermaids, but when the neighbourhood boys found out, they made fun of him. Ever since then he hated the idea of mermaids and magic.

“Not entirely. Even boys can have their beliefs, right?” Sousuke sounded a bit irritated, but his facial expression remained the same. Rin was about to stick his tongue out at the dark haired boy on the bed when an idea struck him.

“Hey, Sousuke, let's go to the beach.”

“Why, to find mermaids?”

“You can do that. I wanna swim.”

“Sounds fine. Let's go.”


	2. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin decides to keep the precious thing, and Sousuke tries to help a sad Makoto. But Haru doesn't like it.

The beach was in a very peaceful state, the waves crashing against large stones lined up by the shore. Seagulls hovered over the sea, eyeing their prey and making incomprehensible sounds every now and then. At this particular time of day, nobody in Iwatobi would go to the beach, which was exactly why Matsuoka Rin preferred to be there right then. But of course he didn't like going alone because then he couldn't compete with anyone so he dragged his best friend Yamazaki Sousuke along with him. Sousuke had no complaints though, because in all honesty he liked the cool breeze and salty air of the beach, along with the vast blue sky which harmonizes with the navy blue of the sea.

Although he might not seem like it, but Sousuke had a soft spot for arts, and finds himself appreciating scenery such as the one before him. Sousuke glanced at Rin who was busy stripping himself in public, and was soon flexing his nearly nonexistent muscles to prepare them for swimming. The teal eyed boy was not planning on swimming in this cold weather, so he settled with just sitting on a big rock and watching his best friend do his rounds. Sousuke wondered, though, why Rin would prefer to do his training in the sea instead of at the pool.

“Hey, Sousuke look at this!!” an annoying voice screeched into the dark haired boy's ears.

“What now? I'm..” Sousuke trailed off as he saw the item Rin was holding out. It was a very beautiful necklace. A masculine necklace, of course. It had an emerald coloured gem in the shape of a leaf connected to the small silver ball-shaped bead in the middle. “Whoa…where did you get that?”

“Found it. Near those rocks,” Rin grinned, flashing his sharp teeth as he nodded at where he found the accessory. Sousuke gaped in awe when he took the necklace off Rin's hands. “I'm gonna keep it. It's gorgeous.”

“Well, it could belong to someone.”

“Oh shut up. They probably don't need it anymore,” the redhead snatched the necklace from his best friend and stuffed it safely in his pocket. Rin stretched his whole body once more before speaking again. “Let's sit there.”

The teal eyed boy pulled himself to his feet, and followed his friend. Once they were settled on the huge rocks on shore, Sousuke noticed that the view was marvellous from there. He allowed himself to relax and released a small smile. Rin was kicking his feet in the water when he realized Sousuke's rare, genuine smile which made him smile as well. He was glad that his best friend could let his guard down around him, indicating that he trusted Rin enough. The smaller boy looked around, enjoying the scenery, and heard a soft voice coming from his left.

“I'm so sorry….”

Rin moved his attention to the source and saw two boys not too far away from where he was sitting, one with olive hair and the other raven. The olive haired one was wiping his face with the back of his hand while he held tightly onto the shirt of the slightly taller raven.

“I've never seen those two before,” Rin muttered audibly, pulling Sousuke's attention.

“What is it?”

“There.”

Sousuke moved closer and saw the two. He also heard the olive haired boy's sobs which, for some reason, broke his heart.

“We gotta go there.”

“What? Why?”

“Let's go!” Sousuke ignored Rin, and rushed to the aid of the beautiful crying boy. Rolling his eyes, Rin followed after the taller boy. They soon arrived since it was not too far anyway, but the raven suddenly had his arms wrapped around the olive haired boy and a sharp glare fixated toward Rin and Sousuke.

“What do you want?” he snapped darkly. Somehow, he had an intimidating aura about him. Sousuke frowned at the hostility but replied all the same.

“I want to help.”

“Huh?”

“Let me explain,” Rin stepped in between the two. “My friend here heard your friend crying, so he wanted to help with anything he could do. And by the way, my name's Rin. Matsuoka Rin. This is Yamazaki Sousuke,” Rin patted Sousuke's back lightly while the latter frowned.

The brunette looked up from the sea blue eyed boy's grasp. Both Sousuke and Rin's hearts almost stopped. That boy had such astonishing bright green eyes that held a very gentle gaze despite being clouded by the sadness in his tears. But he did attempt to smile, though.

“H-hello…Um..I'm..Ta-Tachibana Makoto,” he managed between sobs and hiccups, tears trickling down his cheeks. “And this is…is..Nana..Nanase Haruka.”

“Nice to meet you,” Rin grinned, shaking Makoto's hand. He looked into those grassy green eyes again and allowed his heart to race for a few seconds before pulling his hand back. “So what's the matter?”

Makoto bit his lip as he looked at the sandy ground by his bare feet. He was beginning to feel the chill of the evening air since he was topless, and all he had on were his black and white shorts. It was the same for Haru who only had his greyish blue shorts.

“I lost…something. We're looking for it now.”

“Not much luck, I presume? What are you looking for?”

“Uh….something. We can't go home without it.”

“It's that important? But..if you don't go home now, it's going to be dangerous. At night, these parts usually have big stray dogs.”

“Dogs? What are d-?”

“Makoto,” Haru cut in, looking directly into the other's eyes, blue to green. The smaller boy nodded in understanding as he silenced himself. Rin raised an eyebrow at the awkward atmosphere but soon decided on something.

“Why don't you come home with me, then?” he offered kindly, lips curled into a reassuring smile. “Oh, but I can't bring both of you home.. There's my little sister, too.”

“One of you can come with me, then,” Sousuke suddenly spoke up. Haru, noticing that he was about to be separated from his best friend, narrowed his eyes, making the other two boys before him tremble slightly in his somewhat brooding aura. He took a deep breath in, and released more darkness into the air as he said defensively,

“Nobody takes Makoto from me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was okay. It took a some time to write it, though. So I hope you liked it, thanks for reading! Sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This is my first multi chapter fic, and I hope you can pardon any grammar or spelling mistakes. Anyway, I know it's short, right. But hey, I'm just getting started. Also, it would help if you could suggest any pairings I could work with in this fic? That will definitely be useful. Thanks in advance.


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